KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The High Point University men's soccer team received its highest postseason United Soccer Coaches rankings at No. 16, which was announced on Tuesday night. This is the official NCAA.com poll and final 2025 poll.
Dating back to 2024, the Panthers have been ranked in the United Soccer Coaches for 17 weeks in a row. High Point has been a top-ranked squad in the country since October 15, 2024. On October 28, 2024, HPU earned its highest ranking at No. 11 ranking before rising as high as No. 5 on October 7, 2025.
Under HPU Head Coach
Zach Haines, the Panthers had their best season yet in 2025 as the program firsts continued to stack up. Behind a 14-2-4 record, Haines led the Panthers to their first-ever second round win in the NCAA Tournament — a 3-2 victory over West Virigina at Vert Stadium — which was also the school's first-ever time hosting a second round game on campus for the program's first appearance in the Sweet Sixteen. Haines' squad didn't suffer a loss until after the 10th game to a Sweet Sixteen UNCG team. The Panthers completed a perfect, undefeated 9-0 Big South record and held league opponents to the best goal differential in conference history (30-1).
Haines' tenure of defeating big-time teams continued with wins over #14/25 Georgetown in the season opener as well as results against #10 Marshall and #10 West Virginia in the regular season. The Panthers were the first team in school and league history to receive a ranking from the NCAA Top 16 Committee at #7 before earning the school's highest national seed in the NCAA Tournament at #10. HPU swept the league trophies, winning the Big South regular-season and tournament titles as Haines coached the nation's only four-time major award winner in a different category (
Jefferson Amaya) and the team's first TopDrawerSoccer Player of the Year finalist and the team's fifth MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List honoree (
Daniel Lugo).
HPU had two All-Americans as
Daniel Lugo was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-America Third Team, while
Josh Caron was tabbed to the CSC Academic All-America Second Team. The Panthers had the nation's most MLS College Showcase Attendees in Lugo,
Jefferson Amaya, and
Lukas Kamrath as
Alfred Baafi,
Roman Holt,
Koven Johnson,
Brendan Krueger and incoming transfer Aidan Morrison are all on MLS Draft lists.
In the Haines Era, HPU has been ranked six out of his seven years (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025) with the Panthers receiving votes in 2023. The Panthers have never shied away from a tough schedule, ending 2025 at No. 15 in the RPI and No. 16 in the rankings. Over the years, High Point has defeated: No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 7 Maryland, North Carolina, West Virginia, Duke, No. 14/25 Georgetown, and No. 25 Coastal Carolina, while tying No. 2 Georgetown in 2022, No. 10 Marshall and No. 10 West Virginia in 2025.
The historic season mirrored on social media as impressions (8,636,338) increased 208.1 percent and video views (1,164,928) grew 193.1 percent, while engagements rose by 13 percent to 172,288 and net audience growth peaked nearly 45 percent with 2,255 new followers.
#GoHPU
2025 Rankings
TopDrawerSoccer (TDS)
United Soccer Coaches (USC)
College Soccer News (CSN)
Preseason: #24 (TDS)
Week 1: #13 (USC), #24 (TDS)
Week 2: #15 (USC), #19 (CSN)
Week 3: #12 (USC), #18 (CSN)
Week 4: #11 (USC), #14 (CSN), #23 (TDS)
Week 5: #9 (USC), #13 (CSN), #19 (TDS)
Week 6: #7 (USC), #9 (CSN), #16 (TDS)
Week 7: #5 (USC), #8 (CSN), #12 (TDS)
Week 8: #11 (USC), #9 (CSN), #14 (TDS)
Week 9: #8 (USC), #9 (CSN), #11 (TDS)
Week 10: #8 (USC), #9 (CSN), #8 (TDS)
Week 11: #12 (USC), #10 (CSN), #10 (TDS)
Week 12: #9 (USC), #10 (CSN), #9 (TDS)
Postseason Poll: #16 (USC)
